The Mel Blanc Show Radio Program

Palmolive Soap ad from 1899. We can only hope the word 'delicious' referred to Jean Shepherd's reminiscence about his childhood:

"Over the years I got to be quite a connoisseur of soap. Though my personal preference was for Lux, I found that Palmolive had a nice, piquant after-dinner flavor - heavy, but with a touch of mellow smoothness."

1906 Colgate and Company ad promoting the 100th Anniversary packaging for their dental and beauty products

Colgate-Palmolive-Peet promoted its Halo Shampoo during the closing sponsor message over The Mel Blanc Show

1949 Colgate Tooth Power

Brilliant voice talent Mel Blanc got his first leading role in The Mel Blanc Show.

Radio, Film, Television and Animation's legendary 'man of a thousand voices' Mel Blanc appeared as 'Mr. Postman' and other wacky characters during the Burns and Allen Swan Soap run

Earle Ross, with over 42 years in Radio, appeared as Uncle Rupert Blanc as well as several other roles

Bea Benadaret was featured in one capacity or another throughout The Mel Blanc Show

Hans Conried appeared frequently in The Mel Blanc Show

Popular Bud Hiestand served as The Mel Blanc Show's announcer

Mel Blanc, himself a hardware store owner, helps promote National Fix-It Week for the Hardware Manufacturers of America.

Billboard article of May 24th 1947 signals Colgate's intent to stop sponsoring The Mel Blanc show

Background: Colgate-Palmolive-Peet's Radio sponsorships

From Broadcast Radio's inception in the mid-1920s to well into the waning days of the Golden Age of Radio, Colgate-Palmolive-Peet had been one of Radio's most prolific sponsors. From soaps to variety to adventure drama to sports, Colgate-Palmolive-Peet employed Radio in every way imaginable to promote their growing family of laundry products and beauty and health aids:

In 1806, soap and candle maker William Colgate opened up a starch, soap and candle factory on Dutch Street in New York City as William Colgate & Company. Colgate suffered a severe heart attack, sidelining his growing business for several years. After recovering enough to continue his business in earnest, William Colgate & Company began selling cakes of soap in uniform weights directly to consumers. William Colgate was also a deeply religious Christian and civic-minded lay-worker who helped found the American Bible Society, best known for its Good News Translation of the Bible. When William Colgate died in 1857, William Colgate & Company reorganized as Colgate & Company under the management of Colgate's son, Samuel Colgate. It was in 1872 that Colgate & Company introduced Cashmere Bouquet, a perfumed soap. At its introduction, Colgate & Company issued the following advertising copy to promote the product (from the July 22nd, 1872 edition of the Janesville Gazette):

"A healthy body is the tabernacle, but a
filthy, sickly one the prison, of the soul.
Let those who are filthy and sick, and
would be well, heed this proverb and place
their reliance upon the use of Colgate's
Cashmere Boquet Soap, so elegantly perfumed,
to guard against threatened disease,
and to regain the blessing of health."

Even more telling of the era, was this promotional copy for Cashmere Boquet and Colgate's Violet Toilet Water--from the November 7th 1877 edition of the Iowa State Reporter (reprinted precisely as found):

"It will be found upon inquiry of representative store-keepers in city and town, that ladies no longer depend on foreign makers for their Perfumery and Toilet Articles.

To Messrs. COLGATE & Co., the credit is largely due for this marked departure from the old preference.

Their Cashmere Boquet Soap and Violet Toilet Water, is universally esteemed by the tasteful and refined, as the most delicate and recherche of purfumes."

Both of the above were fairly representative promotional copy for feminine requisites of the era.

In 1873 Colgate introduced its first toothpaste, first in jars then in tubes. Colgate's first toothpaste in a tube, Colgate Ribbon Dental Cream, arrived in 1896. That same year Colgate hired Martin Ittner, under whose direction Colgate & Company founded one of America's first applied research labs. By 1908 Colgate & Company was mass-producing toothpaste in tubes. Samuel Colgate's brother, James Boorman Colgate, became a primary trustee of Colgate University.

Meanwhile, over in Milwaukee at the turn of the century, the B.J. Johnson Company had devised a soap--'Palm-olive'--rendered entirely from palm and olive oils, a formula B.J. Johnson had developed in 1898. B.J. Johnson's vegetable oil-based soap became so popular that B.J. Johnson adopted Palmolive as the firm's new name. At the dawn of the 20th Century Palmolive had become the world's most delicious(?) popular bar soap.

The huge Kansas City, Missouri and Oakland, California based soap manufacturer, Peet Brothers, merged with Palmolive to become Palmolive-Peet. And in 1928, Palmolive-Peet bought the Colgate Company to create the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company. It was the Peet Brothers 'Crystal White Soap Chips' that eventually evolved into Colgate-Palmolive-Peet's famous 'Super Suds Soap Flakes.' Peet Brothers' own Crystal White Soap Chips had long been promoted as "the billion bubble soap."

Super Suds' claim to be capable of 'all but filling two trailer trucks with suds' came under the scrutiny of LIFE magazine in its October 20th 1947 issue.

Colgate-Palmolive-Peet once responded to a 1947 challenge to that same claim by Super Suds by promising to fill two trailer trucks with the suds output from a single box of Super Suds. LIFE magazine followed the challenge to completion in a three-page article from their October 20th 1947 issue titled "Speaking of Pictures . . . Soapsuds prove an adman's claim." And indeed, a single box of Super Suds did in fact fill a single--even larger--trailer truck to overflowing by about 300 cubic feet with its output of soap suds. An ad executive's dream come true, to be sure. Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company ultimately dropped the 'Peet' in 1953, becoming simply the Colgate-Palmolive Company.

Colgate and CBS give Mel Blanc a lead role over Radio

From the September 5th 1946 edition of the Cedar Rapids Tribune:

"THE MEL BLANC SHOW"

A unique radio personality takes the limelight as star of his own great comedy show on station WMT. It's Mel Blanc!

The whole world has heard his versatile voice as Bugs Bunny and Porky the Pig in animated cartoons; as the French violin teacher, the parrot and the train-caller with Jack Benny, as the lugubrious postman with Burns and Allen; as Sandy McBrown, the canny Scot, and Cartoony Technicolorvich, the erratic movie director, with Abbott and Costello; as Pedro, the friendly gardener, and Roscoe Wortle, the traveling salesman, with Judy Canova; as one or another of an endless gallery of comic characters on any number of radio programs.

Since 1927, Mel Blanc has functioned as the most-in-demand player in radio. He has become a unique, dependable performer . . . a product exclusively of radio. His sure-fire performances on four major networks won him "Radio Life's" distinguished achievement award as the outstanding supporting character on the air. Ecstatic articles about him, about his phenomenally versatile larynx, his ad lib ability, his "sixth sense for timing"--have appeared, in national publications.

WMT brings you this super-comic personality every Tuesday night at 6:30 in a great new laugh-show. Written by two masters of situation-comedy, David Victor and Herbert Little, the new show sets Mel up in a modest business called "Mel Blanc's Fix-It Shop." It's touch and go, however, whether things get fixed, or unhinged. Despite the earnest attempts of Betty, Mel's long-time girl friend, to make him a success, Mel is continually finding himself treading a tangent as a result of the complications induced by the assortment of characters which frequent his shop. This assortment includes Uncle Rupert, a seedy, philandering reprobate; Mrs. Longnecker, a bored and wealthy widow; Zooky, Mel's handy-boy; and Dr. Crabbe, a somewhat inarticulate veterinary.

This is the basic gallery of comic types which forms the laugh-guaranteeing nucleus of the "Mel Blanc Show." Mel, as a vast variety of anonymous voices, has been a top-notch radio showman for going-on-ten-years. Now he's come into his own--as the brightly original comedy star of his own great show on Tuesday night.

CBS capitalized on Mel Blanc's fame as a master of voices to promote The Mel Blanc Show in a series of spot ads such as this one from September 17th 1946 for KGLO, Mason City, Iowa

It was rightfully assumed from the outset that Mel Blanc's first featured role over Radio would be popular. But as with many Radio productions of the post-World War II era, timing was everything. The Mel Blanc Show offered excellent music direction by Victor Miller and his orchestra, one of the West Coast's most beloved announcers, Bud Hiestand, and an excellent sponsor in Colgate-Palmolive-Peet. Mel Blanc's natural--and exceptional--voice talent was unquestionably the series' greatest selling factor; and Mel got to show his acting and timing chops to a far greater degree with his own situation comedy.

Mel Blanc also ensured the superior quality of his series by adding a remarkable ensemble of some of Radio's most versatile voice talents to that of his own remarkable instrument: Mary Jane Croft, Joe Kearns, Hans Conried, Jerry Hausner, Bea Benadaret, Earle Ross, Elvia Allman, Allen Reed, Jim Backus, and Sandra Gould, among others. Victor Miller's musical interludes were also augmented by the increasingly popular vocal group, The Sportsmen.

The Mel Blanc Show centered around 'Mel Blanc's Fix-It Shop,' whose motto was "You Bend It, We Mend It." Mel employed a stuttering handyman, Zooky (also played by Mel Blanc), upon which he later fashioned his version of the animated alter ego, Elmer Fudd. Mel's greatest passion in life was his childhood sweetheart and fiance of five years, Betty Colby (played by Mary Jane Croft), daughter of the owner of Supermarket No. 12, the major supermarket in Mel's town (population 7501). Mr. Colby, not nearly as enamored of Mel as his daughter Betty, was portrayed by Joe Kearns. Mel's Uncle Rupert played a major role in the series' first thirteen episodes, portrayed by Earle Ross. Also prominent in the series' first thirteen episodes was the town's wealthy matron, Mrs. Clara Longnecker, portrayed by Bea Benadaret. Mel Blanc also occasionally portrayed Dr. Christopher Crabbe, the town's 'dog doctor.' Fleshing out the growing cast of characters was Hans Conried in numerous roles, but predominately as Mr. Snoop, the town's snoopy mailman, and as Mr. Cushing of The Benevolent Order of Loyal Zebras, Mel's fraternal organization. Mel himself served as The Zebras' Exalted Ruler of The Lower Level. Mr. Cushing, by contrast, was The Zebras' Mighty Supreme Mightiest Exalted Ruler Potentate Monarch, Senior Grade.

The Benevolent Order of Loyal Zebras bears a bit of exposition. As the town's only fraternal order, The Zebras served as a major social hub of the town. Whenever Zebras encountered each other, they were required to both greet each other with The Zebras' 'secret password,' and the same when they parted. The Zebras' original password had been: "Hi Moga Si Hunger Ree Heebee Jeebee Alacadabra Sweet Cookie." Unfortunately that password proved problematic for its members with full dentures. The Zebras subsequently changed their password to the somewhat less complicated, "Ugga Ugga Boo Ugga Boo Boo Ugga." The Ugga Ugga Boo Ugga Boo Boo Ugga password was fashioned into an original composition introduced at Episode No. 22, "The Zebras Masquerade Ball," with The Sportsmen and Mel Blanc singing the original lyrics as composed and conducted by Victor Miller and his orchestra.

'Touch nothing but the handle,' the stranger warned, in a voice so menacing that it scared Betty and Mel into panic.
(Mel Blanc, Mary Jane Croft and Hans Conreid illustrate a scene from a Mel's Fix-It Shop story prepared for Radio Mirror magazine's August 1947 issue)

So why didn't The Mel Blanc Show race up the charts? Clearly, Mel Blanc's millions of stalwart fans loved Blanc's performances, as well as those of Radio's most versatile supporting actors of the era. But the writing and direction just didn't click. Reviewers of the era hinted that perhaps the writers and director of The Mel Blanc Show leaned to heavily on Blanc's extraordinary voice versatility alone. There's no question that Blanc's truest fans would have loved simply 25 minutes of Mel Blanc reading a telephone book in various dialects. But that's not how CBS and Colgate billed The Mel Blanc Show; it was promoted as a situation comedy-variety show, competing with at least twelve other similar situation comedy-variety programs of the era--many of them very highly rated.

The Mel Blanc Show's failure to catch on didn't escape the attention of Colgate-Palmolive-Peet. By approximately Episode No. 20, Colgate brought in Sam Fuller to both produce and direct the series and Mac Benoff assumed the writing duties. The transition wasn't quite seamless, but the writing did improve somewhat as did the pace. Little continuity miscues crept into the subsequent episodes, an example of which was changing the duration of Mel and Betty's engagement from five years to four years. 'Uncle Rupert' and 'Mrs. Longnecker' having long disappeared from the series, the remaining characters had details of their respective 'backstories' somewhat altered as well. One can only surmise that with the departure of writers David Victor and Herb Little Jr., they took their continuity notes with them.

Another infrequent change in the series found the programs introducing more variety elements into The Mel Blanc Show. Both The Sportsmen and Victor Miller's orchestra performed in one or two musical pieces in subsequent episodes.

Regardless of the sponsor's perceived popularity of The Mel Blanc Show it remained a fan favorite over Radio for its entire run. Apparently Radio Mirror magazine felt that the series would be picked up for another season, since they published the following 'written for Radio Mirror' episode of The Mel Blanc Show in their August 1947 edition:

"-And- furthermore--Mel Blanc--you're a good-for-nothing! Look at you! Tinkering around in this silly Fix-It shop while other young men your age are getting ahead in the world. They'll be Captains of Industry while you're still swabbing decks--and you have the nerve to want to marry my daughter! Let me tell you- " . .
Mr. Colby was warming up well to his favorite subject and he shook a heavy finger at the young man across the store counter from him. The young man in tum tried to keep his face dutifully respectful and properly chastened--but it was difficult with the dazzling vision of Betty Colby winking ot him behind her father's back. The best he could manage was a sickly grin.
"- and you'd better start amounting to something pretty soon, Mel Blanc, or I'll put a stop to your seeing Betty. We Colbys have a social standing to maintain in this town, remember. Why--" now Mr. Colby drew himself up proudly--"our family have been the pinnacle of respectability here for generations. My greatgrandfather, Hezekiah Colby, was one of the first settlers, and his s0n-- "
"Wasn't that old 'Cokey Colby,' the one who--"
"Never mind!" Mr. Colby glared at him and slapped his hat on his head and then turned to his daughter. "Betty--remember--you're not to have any date with Mel tonight. You're going with me to Banker Grimes' party. They're the richest people in town and this is the biggest social affair and it's one place where Mel Blanc will never be invited!" He strode out the door, turning, as he left, to snarl over his shoulder--''The town's tinker!" at Mel.
The door slammed behind him.
"What did he call me?" Mel asked, apprehensively.
"The town's tinker." Betty perched herself up on the counter beside him.
He sighed. "That's what I thought-- it sounds the same even when you say it."
"Gee, Mel. What are we going to do? Daddy's getting so angry with you."
"Don't worry, Betty," he assured her, stoutly, ''I can manage your father, Lion-hearted Blanc, they call me."
"Who does?" she queried, flatly.
"Never mind," hastily. He propped his chin in his hands and leaned on the counter." If there was only something I could do to impress your father. If the Grimeses had only invited me to their ball tonight, then your father would know I was a fine, upstanding, worthwhile citizen."
"I like you the way you are" consoled Betty. But she said it absentmindedly because she was pursuing a thought of her own. " I'm surprised the Grimeses are still planning to entertain tonight. You know, Mrs. Grimes was robbed of her diamond ring this morning. I should think--"BUT what she thought was never finished because just then the door opened and a stranger walked in."Customer!" whispered Mel to the girl and she slid off the counter.
"My good man--" the stranger's eyebrows elevated themselves a careful quarter of an inch, and his accent hovered somewhere around Oxford--with just an odd, peculiar flavor of Flatbush, "--my good man, is it your business to repair? I have here a treasured antique--a genuine Spoofingshire lamp. The handle is loose and I wish to have it repaired. At once. Just the handle, mind you." There was a long pause--then "I don't want you messing around with the rest of it, understand?" The odd customer wasn't waiting for an answer. He moved to the door and turned with his hand on the knob. "I will return in exactly two hours. I expect to find it ready then. I'm taking a powd--I mean, my train leaves promptly at five this afternoon."
The door closed softly behind him.
"Gee, Betty!" Mel came out of his daze. "Did you see his eyes? I don't think he liked me very much."
"Nonsense," she said, briskly. "You're getting too sensitive, Mel. He's a stranger in town--people have to know you to dislike you, Mel."
For a few minutes there was silence in the shop as Mel studied the lamp.
Then Betty suddenly straightened up. "Mel--the shape of that lamp! I've been trying to remember. It looks just like Aladdm's lamp in fairy-tales."
"What about Aladdin's lamp?"
"You rubbed it," Betty answered, "At least, Aladdin did--and a genie appeared to answer his wish." She eyed the lamp in Mel's hand speculatively.
"Rub it?" Mel exclaimed. He and Betty stared at each other, and then back at the lamp.
"Oh, Mel, maybe it is!" Betty said at last. "It must be something out of the ordinary! It's nothin,g to look at and it can't be valuable in itself, and yet look how much store that man put by it! Maybe it does have magical qualities!"
" Yeah, Mel said, awed: "Remember how that man looked at me? I still get the shakes every time I think about it--and I don't think it was because he was worried I couldn't fix the handle. I'll bet he was scared we'd find the secret. I don't even think this is genuine Spoofingshire at all. Gee, Aladdin's Lamp! But what do we do?"
"We rub it. And we say magic words," Betty contributed helpfully though not very practically.
"What magical words?" But Mel grabbed a cloth and started frantically rubbing the side of the lamp. "Alakazam, ala kazoo." Nothing happened.
Frantically the two fell on the lamp, taking turns rubbing--calling up every exotic-sounding word they could think of. And as the hands of the clock moved inexorably on--as moments slipped by and the two hours of the strange customer's threatened return shrank to an hour and then to minutes.

"Open sesame!" Mel pleaded.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" implored Betty.
"Eenie-meenie-miney-mo.... , what-to-do-now-I-don't-know--" Mel was wishing something would happen.
Something did happen. With that last, frantic rub it happened. But no Genie slowly materialized in ectoplasm in that room; there was a tinkling, crackling sound--and--
"Mel! Look--you've rubbed a hole right through the side of it!"
They both stared in consternation and dismay. And then both, with a single thought, looked up at the clock.
"Three minutes and he'll be here. Oh, my gosh, what have I done now! Your father is right, Betty." Mel was trying so hard to think Betty could almost see the wheels go round (stripping gears at every turn). "Maybe I can patch it up so he won't notice it, Betty. Do you think so?"
They hadn't heard the door open.
"And have you fixed the lamp, my good man? I don't like to be kept waiting, you know."
"GEE, mister--I'm awfully sorry--there's been a little accident. Oh--nothing much--" he added hastily as the stranger took one quick step in his direction-- "nothing serious--nothing that couldn't be mended. That's the Fix-It shop motto, you know--if it doesn't need fixi ng when you bring it in, it will before you take it out. Heh, heh--" but his feeble laughter at his feeble joke died away as he saw the other wasn't exactly convulsed with merriment. "Look, mister-it's almost as good as new. If you'll just wait a second while it sets--the patch, I
mean--
"I thought I told you not to mess around with that lamp!" and now there was no mistake about the man's intentions.
"Give it to me. And then I'm going to--what was that?"That was the slamming of the door. The stranger stopped walking. Mel stopped retreating. And both stared, with mingled emotions, at Mr. Colby who had entered the shop.
"What's going on here? Heard you yelling half-way down the block, Mel. What have you got yourself into this time? I heard something about a lamp."
Before Mel could answer, the strange customer spoke up. The suavity and the Oxford English were back in his voice. "This stupid shop-keeper! I leave my precious Spoofingshire lamp in here to be fixed and what does he do?
Now, my good man, give it te me immediately and we'll have no more of this nonsense. I should have known better than to bring it in here in the first place. I'll take it with me and have it repaired in the next town I come to."
It was Mr. Colby who stopped him, once more.....this time with his hand on his arm. "No, you don't," he boomed, outraged pride written all over his face. "We can't let it be said that strangers get gypped in our town. Mel Blanc may be our misfortune, but we won't let visitors here suffer from it. I know where there's the exact duplicate of that lamp, in the furniture store down the street. Genuine Spoofingshire it is, too. I'm not going to let you walk out of here with a broken lamp--no, siree! Mel can run right down--"
"But I don't want another lamp! I want this one!" there was a harried, look beginning to creep into his cold, fishy eyes.
"Won't hear of it," Mr. Colby puffed. "That other lamp is the exact duplicate of this one--antique, too." He tumed with what Mel could only describe to himself as a leer, and patted the shopowner's shoulder." Go on, my boy....get that lamp. Only costs three hundred dollars. Of course, that might put you out of business. You might even go to jail. You might not be able to see Betty for a long, long time."
THE stranger was trying desperately to pull away from Mr. Colby's heavy hand. "I don't want another lamp!" he repeated . "Leave me alone, you jerk!"
"Here! Here! What's going on?" Patrolman Danny Killoran stood in the opening, all six feet of solid bone and muscle, his face red and his eyes popping. "What 's all the racket about?"
"No trouble at all, Officer--" four voices answered in perfect unison.
"Then what--Mel Blanc, what you up to this time? And you--" pointing his stick at the Beau Brummell stranger--"haven't I seen you some place before? Don't I know you?"
The man he had indicated drew himself up stiffly, though a bit shakily.
"Perhaps, my good man." His voice was almost haughty. "It's the price people like myself have to pay for being rich and famous. Naturaliy I'm traveling incognito--but here's my card."
"Samuel Orpington Percheron, the Three." Danny Killoran read out loud, and then reached up to push his cap back and scratch his head. "Percheron--let me see-Percheron--"
Mr. Colby leaped into the breach. "Of course we know Mr. Percheron. Everybody knows Mr. Percheron!" The calling card had made a big impression on Betty's father.
"It's nothing, Officer." Once again Mr. Colby asserted himself. "Mel has ruined a lamp that belongs to Mr. Percheron but Mel is going to buy another one just like it, in its place."
"But I don't want--give me my lamp!" The Oxford English slipped a notch.
Then Mel piped up. He had been getting a little dizzy, listening to the others settling his affairs. Courage came to him, suddenly. "He doesn't want any other lamp! And that other one is three hundred--I mean, this is just as good. Watch, Officer Killoran, I'll show you!" Inspiration came to him in a Rash. "This patch makes it as good as new. It will hold the oil or the kerosene or whatever is supposed to go into it--I'll show you--I'll fill it with water--" and suiting his actions to his words, Mel held the lamp quickly under the faucet.
"Don't do that!" yelled Mr. Percheron. But nobody paid any attention to him.
"See?" Mel flourished the lamp in the air and it was true--no water dripped from its patched and mended side. See, Mr. Colby? I don't have to replace it with any other. I'll just pour the water out of this spout--"
They watched. But nothing happened. The water stayed in the lamp.
"What's the matter with the thing?" asked Danny Killoran, puzzled. "And what's the matter with you, Mr. Percheron?
Where you goin' in such a hurry? Quit your crowding me out of this doorway!"
The policeman clutched the arm of the stranger in a vise-like clamp and hung on. It was an instinctive act--but Mr. Percheron was acting most peculiarly. Gone, suddenly, was the polite, urbane facade of his manners. Gone was his boredom and his nonchalance. He kicked; he struggled in Danny's grasp; he snarled. And the language that came from his throat didn't match in elegance the fawn-colored gloves and the spats.
There was only one thing to do and the policeman did it. He sat on Mr. Samuel Orpington Percheron the Three.
Mel and Betty were staring in rapt wonder at the little paper-wrapped cone they had pulled out ot the spout; the obstruction that had kept the water in the lamp. Or, rather, they stared at what was in the paper.
"Gee," Mel breathed, in wonder, "isn't it a pretty ring? Looks just like the one I got out of that candy box, Betty!"
"Candy box!" The officer snorted. "That's the Grimes diamond ring or my name isn't Killoran. Slippery Sam the jewel thief. And I've caught him--err--we've caught him, Mel my boy. Don't know how you were so smart as to hold him here until I came or thought to pour water into that lamp."
"Mel thought--Mel did--" Mr. Colby was strangling.
"Be quiet, Mr. Colby." Officer Killoran wasn't to be distracted. "This was a clever stunt of Slippery Sam's. Putting that ring in that lamp and leaving it here to be fixed until his train left. That way, if he were picked up, it wouldn't be on his person nor in his room at the hotel. I guess he thought you were stupid enough not to investigate, Mel." He shook his head, thoughtfully, shirting his bulk a little on the complaining Mr. Percheron.
"Would have thought so, myself. Never gave you credit for any brains before."
"Well, come along, Slippery Sam." The policeman heaved himself to his feet and yanked the other along with him. "It's down to the jail with you. Mrs. Grimes will be glad to get that ring back. I'll bet she'll be faIling all over your neck, Mel my boy. And there's a reward. We'll split it between us, if you've no objections."
IT was much later that same evening and the big Grimes mansion was ablaze with lights. Music came softly from the drawing room, wafting over the head of the dancing couples out the open french doors to where two people stood in the semi darkness on the lawn.
"Gee, Betty," Mel pinched himself for the tenth time that evening. "I can hardly believe it. Here I am a guest at the Grimes house and everyone says I'm a hero."
She snuggled up to him and he took a frightened, backward step. "Yes, isn't it grand, Mel? Your picture in the papers and that hundred dollars reward and everybody so proud of you. Daddy can't believe it. He even loaned you that tuxedo you're wearing. And the shirt and everything. He says he can't believe it--but he can't very well be mad at you when everybody else is so proud! Oh" Mel--" she moved closer still and he retreated backwards again--"maybe now we can get married! Maybe - Mel! watch where you're going! Oh!"
There was a loud splash. That last step of Mel's had been his undoing and he had gone, backwards, right into the Grimes goldfish pool.
There was a gurgle and then another splash, and then the dripping form of Mel Blanc rose from the water. "I'm all wrong," he mourned. "As usual. Oh, gosh, Betty--look what I've done to your father's best tuxedo!"
"His only tuxedo," corrected Betty with a wail. "Now he'll be madder at you than ever, and he won't let me see you, and he'll call you a dope, and--and we'll never get married!'
Mel climbed out of the pool. "Maybe I can get it fixed. Maybe a tailor can clean it up and press it, and he'll never know. Maybe...."
In the distance came a voice, jovial-sounding still, but like the trump of doom nevertheless. "Mel! Betty! Where are you?"
Spiritlessly, Mel wrang water out of his--no, Mr. Colby's--coattails. And the voice was nearer now. There was no escape. Betty knew it. Mel knew it. Another moment or two would bring the Colby wrath down on his head, and once again Mel Blanc of the Fix-It Shop would be in a fix that no mere Fix-It Shop could ever fix. The fix he would always be in, unless some miracle happened. Some miracle like, say, the kind wrought by Aladdin's Lamp....

The most helpful provenances were the log of the RadioGOLDINdex and newspaper listings.

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The Mel Blanc Show Radio Log

Date

Episode

Title

Avail.

Notes

46-08-27

--

--

46-08-20 The Athens MessengerAlso in development for the new season is a Mel Blanc show for CBS, beginning Sept. 3, which goes on in place of the three-year-old Theater of Romance dramas. A comedy series, it will give Blanc his first feature program after numerous character roles in both radio and the movies.

46-08-27 Wisconsin State Journal
6:30 Theater of Romance--WBBM

46-09-03

1

Mel's Birthday Card Promotion

Y

[Premiere; Replaces Theater of Romance]

46-09-03 Wisconsin State Journal
6:30 p.m.--Mel Blanc (WBBM): "The man of a hundred voices" begins his own show as owner of Mel Blanc's "Fix-It Shop."

46-09-10 Mason City Globe-GazzeteMel Blanc ShowTop priority on the subject of voices necessarily goes to Mel Blanc, who built his reputation on the use of his triple-jointed larynx to portray a bewildering and bewitching variety of comic characters. Tuesday night marks Mel Blanc's second appearance, as his superbly comic self, on "The Mel Blanc Show" (6:30 p. m.). Listeners can depend on an explosion of hilarity when Mel's Fix-It Shop is filled with such eccentrics as Uncle Rupert, Zooky and Mrs. Longnecker.

Features Bea Benadaret as Fifi Divine and Joe Kearns as Herbert Goodhew

46-09-17

3

Mel and the County Fair Cake-Baking Contest

Y

46-09-17 Wisconsin State Journal
6:30 Mel Blanc--WBBM

46-09-17 Mason City Globe-GazzeteMel BlancMel's girl Betty decides to enter a cake baking contest at tne county fair. Mel also bakes a cake to test an oven he has mended. By some mischance, Mel's cake is entered in the contest also and wins first prize over his girl's. The "Mel Blanc Show" at 6:30 p. m. provides comedy situations , . . and what "situations!

Features Leora Thatcher as Miss Stanhope

46-09-24

4

Mel's Crew Renovates Mr. Colby's House

Y

[AFRS Only; Speed and pitch adjusted]

46-09-24 Wisconsin State Journal
6:30 Mel Blanc--WBBM

46-09-24 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc ShowMademoiselle Fame has stopped being coy and listeners are now treated to a new show starring one of the most versatile comedians of radio and the movies. You probably don't know him by name  but you've heard him as the Happy Postman, Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and a host of other characters whose distinctive voices are their trademarks. The gentleman in question is Mel Blanc, who is heard any Tuesday night at 6:30 playing himself in the "Mel Blanc Show." Moreover, the setting for the new show is "Mel Blanc's Fix-it Shop," a fair counterpart of the bustling hardware store he really owns in Ventura, Cal.

46-10-08 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel BlancMel Blanc Fixit Shop continues its wonderfully weird and hilarious way on the "Mel Blanc Show" at 7:30 p. m. Mel plays himself on the program, amusing friends and supporting his relatives in his Fixit Shop.

46-10-15 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc ShowMel takes time out from his Fix-It shop to take over Zooky's paper route and almost loses his girl friend, on the "Mel Blanc Show" at 7:30 p. m. Mel delivers the wrong papers to fiancee Betty's father, precipitating no end of trouble.

Features Hans Conried as Mr. Fisher

46-10-22

8

Mel Meets Betty Rhodes

Betty Rhodes circa 1945

Y

46-10-22 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

46-10-22 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc ShowMel '"Mr. Fix-It" Blanc, the man with a hundred voices, opens the doors to his fix-it shop on the. "Mel Blanc Show" at 7:30 p. m. Uncle Rupert, Zooky, girl-friend Betty and the dowager Mrs. Longnecker make life interesting for Mel.

Features Betty Jane Rhodes as herself

46-10-29

9

The Community Chest Benefit

Y

[Special Community Chest program; Edited, truncated]

46-10-29 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

46-10-29 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc ShowThe owner of the Fix-It Shop considers closing for repairs, as new complications arise to plague him on the "Mel Blanc Show" at 7:30 p, m. Mel Blanc, multi-voiced radio and film comic, stars as himself.

Features Han Conried as Willie Murdoch and Bert Gordon, 'The Mad Russian,' as Ugg Ugg the Iroquois Indian Messenger and Jesse James

46-11-12 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 p. m.) A customer with a repair problem draws a "blanc" in the Fix It Shop on the "Mel Blanc Show." Flexible-voiced Mel Blanc heads a versatile'supporting cast.

46-11-19

12

Mel as Whitmore the Mystic's Assistant

Y

46-11-19 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

46-11-19 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 p. m.) Mel Blanc's Fix-It Shop, which repairs anything, including an occasional broken heart, takes on a new assignment on the "Mel Blanc Show,"

46-11-26

13

Mel's Thanksgiving Party

Y

[Thanksgiving program]

46-11-26 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

46-11-26 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 P m.) Flexible-voiced Mel Blanc can sound like anything from Bugs Bunny to a basso profundo, but he ends up sounding like the beleagured proprietor of a "Fix-It Shop."

Features Jerry Hausner as Mr. Murdoch

46-12-03

14

Mel's Tries to Elope

Y

46-12-03 New York Times
8:30-8:55--Mel Blanc Show: Victor Miller Orchestra--WCBS.

46-12-03 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 P. m.).Mel Blanc, the film voice of Porky Pig, wishes he could assume the dentity and peaceful life of the stuttering porker, when complications arise on "The Mel Blanc Show."

46-12-10

15

The 'Supper At the Supermarket' Radio Program

Y

[Christmas program]

46-12-10 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

46-12-10 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 P.m.).Mel Blanc, whose flexible vocal cords enable him to sound like a crowd, trots out some of his many voices on the "Mel Blanc Show." Blanc is familiar to theater-goers as "Bugs Bunny" and "Porky pig."

Features Jerry Hausner as the Willy Murdoch, emcee of 'Supper At the Supermarket'

46-12-17

16

Shopping for Betty's Christmas Present

Y

[Christmas program]

46-12-17 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

46-12-17 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc (7:30 P. m.) It's a woman's privilege to change her mind, but Betty's frequent changes mean trouble for Mel on the "Mel Blanc Show." Mel resorts to changing his identity each time he returns one gift and buys another to keep up with Betty's ideas on what she wants for Christmas

46-12-24

17

Mel Plays Santa Claus for Bobby Bradley

Y

[Christmas program]

46-12-24 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

46-12-31

18

The Zebra of the Year Campaign

Y

[New Years Eve program]

46-12-31 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

46-12-31 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc (7:30 p. m.) Campaigning for the title,of "Outstanding zebra of 1946" Mel Blanc seeks to clinch the award by producing, and starring in the New Year's play of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Zebras.

47-01-07 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 p.m.) The soap shortage sends Mel Blanc into a lather entertaining a soap company executive. Mel's prospective father-in-law invited the executive over to listen to treasured old recordings by Caruso and Galli-Curci. Mel breaks the records and is forced to imitate the great singers through a home-recording set.

47-01-21 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 p.m.) With Mr. Colby trying to raise money t0 buy his house, Mel Blanc endeavors to float a loan for him. When the banker arrives to discuss the deal, Blanc tries to clinch things by introducing a parade of potential co-signers, each of whom sounds different but looks suspiciously like Mel.

47-01-28

22

The Zebras Masquerade Ball

Y

[Poor, Partial or heavily clipped recording; Many circulating exemplars are cleverly manufactured fakes from 9:01 on; the only genuine portion of this circulating episode are the first seven minutes; other circulating exemplars are both too fast and too high a pitch]
47-01-28 New York Times
8:30-WCBS--Mel Blanc Show

47-01-28 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 p.m.) Mel joins music's immortal 3 B'sBach, Beethoven and Brahms-when he composes a piece titled "Ugga Ugga Boo." The song is based on the gag greeting on the "Mel Blanc Show." The Sportsmen quartet joins in premiering the tune.

Features Allen Reed as Professor Potchnik.

47-02-04

23

Betty's Three Faux Suitors

Y

47-02-04 New York Times
8:30-WCBS--Mel Blanc Show

47-02-04 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 p.m.) Mel attempts to convince his girl friend's father that he would be the ideal son-in-law. Mel does imitations of 3 of Betty's other boy friends to prove his own superiority, but papa still maintains that Mel is running a weak 4th.

47-02-11

24

Mel's Tragic Birthday

Y

[Boy Scout Week Salute]

47-02-11 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

47-02-18

25

The Case of The Missing Bread Slice

Y

[Washington's Birthday program]

47-02-18 New York Times
8:30-WCBS--Mel Blanc Show

47-02-18 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 p.m.) Mel turns detective, trying to solve the mystery of the missing slice in each loaf of bread in the supermarket. He starts the investigation to please his prospective father-in-law, a rather difficult thing to do.

Features Jim Backus as Hartley Benson and the Court Clerk

47-02-25

26

Mel Gets Mr. Colby on The Entertainment Cmte.

Y

47-02-25 New York Times
8:30-WCBS--Mel Blanc Show

47-02-25 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 p.m.) With the Exalted Order of Benevolent Zebras in convention, Mel Blanc provides a one-man 12-star show. Mr. Colby (whom Mel wants for a father-in-law) heads the entertainment committee, so Mel goes to bat with a show which features the "voices" of Hollywood stars, all originating in Mel's flexible larynx.

47-03-04 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 p.m.--Mel Blanc (WBBM): and the mayor goes on a hunting trip.

47-03-04 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 p.m.) Radio's man of many voices, Mel Blanc, is involved in a new series of comic situations in his misnamed "Fix-It Shop."

Features Allen Reed as Mayor Quimby and Mary Jane Croft as Mrs. Quimby

47-03-11

28

Mel the Viennese Art Critic

Y

[Income Tax Day program; truncated recording]

47-03-11 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 p.m.--Mel Blanc (WBBM): sells the wrong painting.
47-03-11 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 p.m.) The many-voiced comedian needs even more v0ices to talk his way out of a complicated situation on the "Mel Blanc Show."

47-03-18

29

Mel's Engaged to Two Girls

Y

47-03-18 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 p.m.--Mel Blanc (WBBM): talks himself into engagements to two girls.

47-03-18 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 p.m.) Mel Blanc, radio's man of many voices approaches the threshold of bigamy as he mistakenly talks himself, into engagements with 2 different girls. Mel is in earnest about his proposal to Betty, but the arrival of her cousin, Dotty, creates complications of which Mel becomes an innocent victim.

Features Elvia Allman as Cousin Dottie

47-03-25

30

Miss Ugga Ugga Boo of 1947

Y

47-03-25 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

47-03-25 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 p.m.) A Zebra named Blanc lands in the dog-house when he manipulates the voting for Miss Ugga Boo of 1947 and campaigns against girl friend Betty during a fit of jealousy. The title at stake is based on the greeting of the Exalted Order of Benevolent Zebras, "Ugga ugga boo ugga boo boo ugga."

47-04-01

31

Mel's April Fools Day Joke Backfires

Y

[April Fools Day program]

47-04-01 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

47-04-01 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 p.m.) April foolishness hits a new high when Mel Blanc, many-voiced comedian, turns practical joker. Blanc always turns up on both sides of the same argument.

47-04-08

32

Mel's Easter Egg Hunt Snafu

Y

[Easter program]

47-04-08 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 p.m.--Mel Blanc (WBBM): goes hunting for an egg with his name on it.

47-04-08 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 p.m.) Comedian Mel Blanc goes hunting for an egg with his name on it when, in keeping with annual custom, townspeople hunt for an Easter egg on which a local merchant has written his name. The businessman pays the finder a cash prize. With Mel's name on the egg this year, and $100 at stake, Blanc sets out in desperation to find the egg himself and escape payment.

47-04-15

33

Mel Crashes Mr. Colby's Society Party

Y

47-04-15 New York Times
8:30-WCBS--Mel Blanc Show

47-04-15 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(7:30 p.m.) Mel poses as an expert on affairs operatic and is exp0sed with dramatic violence worthy of a Wagnerian finale. The local banker's wife is scheduled to make her singing debut at a big social event, and her instructor fears he'll lose a pupil when her lack of talent is realized. Mel, to help out, masquerades as an Italian opera expert, and praises her singing. When Mel is unmasked, the real trouble begins.

47-04-22

34

The Grimes' Literary Quiz

Y

47-04-22 Wisconsin State Journal
7:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

47-04-22 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc(7:30 p.m.) Many-voiced Mel Blanc talks his wayinto trouble in his natural voicethen relies on his flexible vocal chords to get him out again, on the "Mel Blanc Show."

47-04-29

35

Mel's Play 'Murder During the Music Lesson'James Mason Movies

Y

47-04-29 Wisconsin State Journal
6:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

47-04-29 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(6:30) When James Mason and Peter Lorre turn out to be unavailable after Mrs. Grimes, wife of the banker, announces them as stars of her charity show, Mel Blanc takes over both roles. Appearing as both movie menaces, Blanc succeeds n scaring the daylights out of himself.

47-05-06

36

The Sunnyville Oil Stock

Y

47-05-06 Wisconsin State Journal
6:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

47-05-06 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(6:30 p. m.) Using several voices to do it, Mel talks his way in and out of trouble. Mary Jane Croft, Joe Kearns and Hans Conreid support the star.

Features Earle Ross as Mrs. Grimes' brother, Mr. Ross

47-05-13

37

Mel Gets Colby in The Supermarket Journal

Y

47-05-13 Wisconsin State Journal
6:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

Features Earle Ross as Mr. 'Stinky' Weed, Editor of The Supermarket Journal

47-05-20

38

Mel and Betty Try A Separation

Y

47-05-20 Wisconsin State Journal
6:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

47-05-20 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(6:30 p. m.) Mel and his girl friend, Betty Colby, put their love to the test by agreeing not to see each her for a week, and discover that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Betty's father, hearing of the plan, is all in favor of making Mel's absence permanent.

47-05-27

39

Pierre Éclair, Interior Decorator

Y

47-05-27 Wisconsin State Journal
6:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

47-05-27 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(6:30 p. m.) Planning a pleasant surprise for Mr. Colby, Mel and his companion, Zooky, arm themselves with paint and brushes and set about redecorating Colby's supermarket. As things turn out, the project is a surprise to Colby, but hardly a pleasant one.

47-06-03

40

Mel Tries to Rent A Summer Cottage for Colby

Y

47-06-03 Wisconsin State Journal
6:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

47-06-03 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(6:30 p. m.) Mel turns ghost and haunts a house . It all starts when he finds a summer home for Mr. Colby, only to have the place rented from under his nose. Blanc promptly invades a linen closet and emerges sheet-wrapped to show that despite losing the house he is the best of spirits.

47-06-10

41

Mel Poses as Doctor Tao the Chinese Philosopher

Y

47-06-10 Wisconsin State Journal
6:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

47-06-10 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(6:30 p. m.) Hoping to make a big enough impression on a local institution of learning to earn himself an honorary degree, Mr. Colby arranges for a Chinese philosopher to address the student body. As things turn out, Mel Blanc has to pinchhit for the sage Oriental.

47-06-17

42

Colby's Big Show

Y

47-06-17 Wisconsin State Journal
6:30 Mel Blanc WBBM

47-06-17 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(6:30 p. m.) When a super-market opens to compete With Mr. Colby's emporium, Mel Blanc does the work of 4 men to hold business for his prospective father-in-law. Colby stages a big show and as the customers take to the road, Blanc. With the help of 3 fellows smuggled along in his larynx, saves the day.

47-06-24 Mason City Globe-GazetteMel Blanc Show(6:30) Mel makes one more bid for the favor of his prospective father-in-law, Mr. Colby, on his "Mel Blanc Show." This broadcast winds up the season for the show. Victor Miller conducts the program's music.

47-07-01

--

--

47-07-01 Wisconsin State Journal
6:30 p.m.--Mr. and Mrs. North (WBBM): detecting pair returns to the air.

The Mel Blanc Show Radio Program Biographies

Radiography: 1936 The Jello Program
1936 The Joe Penner Show
1938 Mickey Mouse Theater Of the Air
1938 Fibber McGee and Company
1938 The Pepsodent Show
1939 Fibber McGee and Molly
1939 Texaco Star Theater
1939 Al Pearce and His Gang
1940 Community Mobililzation For Human Needs
1942 The Great Gildersleeve
1942 Command Performance
1942 The Abbott and Costello Show
1942 The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
1943 This Is My Story
1943 The Jack Benny Program
1943 The Al Jolson Program
1943 G.I. Journal
1943 Lux Radio Theatre
1943 Camel Comedy Caravan
1943 The Judy Canova Show
1943 The Lifebuoy Show
1944 Radio Almanac
1944 Radio Hall Of Fame
1944 Mail Call
1944 The Lucky Strike Program
1944 The Electric Hour
1945 Christmas Seal Campaign
1945 Jubilee
1945 The Life Of Riley
1945 Request Performance
1945 The Danny Kaye Show
1945 Pabst Blue Ribbon Town
1945 Maxwell House Coffee Time
1946 The Mel Blanc Show
1946 Stars In the Afternoon
1947 Boston Blackie
1947 Point Sublime
1948 The Jack Benny Show
1948 Ellery Queen
1949 The Amos 'n' Andy Show
1949 Challenge Of the Yukon
1950 The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show
1951 Family Theater
1954 Salute To the 1954 Easter Seal Campaign
1955 The Dennis Day Show
Here's To Veterans
Are You A Genius?
To the Rear March
The Cisco Kid

Mel Blanc circa 1945

Radio, Film, Television and Animation's legendary 'man of a thousand voices' Mel Blanc appeared as 'Mr. Postman' and other wacky characters during the Burns and Allen Swan Soap run

From the December 21st 1946 Portsmouth Times:

STARS BEWARE!
MR. B. IS ON WAY
FOR TOP BILLING

Bugs Bunny Relates Hare-
Raising 'From Rabbits
To Riches' Saga

Probably none of Hollywood's top stars realizes it, but they're all in grave danger of losing their favored positions to a four-footed fugitive from a cartoonist's ink bottle.

This long-eared pretender to the cinema throne is Warner Brothers' popular leading man, "Bugs Bunny", whose rabbity escapades have zoomed him to filmtown heights.

In a dressing room between scenes of his latest picture, "Rhapsody Rabbit", which began Friday at the Laroy theater, America's No. 1 carrot connoisseur gave his own version of "from rabbits to riches".

"Yeah, Doc, I'll be glad to tell ya about my hare-raising exploits," began Mr. B. "If there's one thing I love to talk about it's myself. What's more interesting, anyway?

Mr. B. stopped momentarily to select another carrot and then continued in a reminiscent mood: "Ya know, Doc, for my age I've come a good long way . . . but dat's to be expected from someone of my caliber, eh? It all began back in 1936 when I made my deboo as an extra in a cartoon featurin' dat big bum, Elmer Fudd. I was one of Elmer's intended victims, but somehow I didn't create any furor.

"Agony, agony, I was completely forgotten for over two years while de world did its best to get along widout me. But class will tell, and den I returned to de screen in a 'quickie'. I wowed 'em dat time, Doc! Knocked 'em right in de aisles, as dey say in de movie business. An' I kept right on goin from dere!"

Admits He's Modest

Pausing to pick out a sliver of carrot from his prominent bicuspids, Mr. B. went on:

Bugs smiled and added: "Don't know how I do it, Doc. I'm just wot de American public loves. Dey call me de 'Bogart of de Cartoons' or de 'Errol Flynn of de Drawing Board'.

"But you'll have to excuse me now, Doc. I see I'm due back on de set. Ya know how it is wid us artists, Doc: de show must go on!"

From the March 10th 1967 issue of Pacific Stars and Stripes:

Lenten Guideposts

Thousand Voices
--One Is Special

By MEL BLANC

IN HOLLYWOOD, they tell me, I'm known as "the man of a thousand voices." Like most Hollywood labels, this is an exaggeration, but where voices are concerned I do have quite a few.
Such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Woody Woodpecker, Porky Pig, Sylvester Cat and Tweety are all close friends of mine for the very good reason that they have to borrow my vocal chords before they can say anything. It's one of those slightly zany jobs that are good fun, pay well and bring other people innocent pleasure, and I wouldn't change it for the world.
But a few years back the man of a thousand voices found himself listening to one small voice that he had never paid much attention to before. The voice was inside him.
I believe this same small voice is inside every one of us, but we're too busy or preoccupied or self-satisfied to listen. Sometimes it takes a terrific jolt, and the silence that follows that kind of jolt, before the voice can make itself heard.
In my case, the jolt was nearly fatal. One night as I was hugging a curve in my little sports car, an automobile coming the other way went out of control. There was a head-on collision at a combined speed of about 90 miles per hour.
When they pried what was left of me out of the wreckage and rushed me to the hospital, they found that the only bone in my body that wasn't broken was my left arm.
When I finally came out of the fog of anesthesia, back to a world of pain, the first thing I saw was Jack Benny sitting by my bed, looking miserable.I SUMMONED all my strength and whispered, "I'm going to make it, Jack." He said, "You'll have to make it, because I can't do my show without you."
In the weeks that followed, I think I survived chiefly on the power of prayerother people's prayers. I had never realized how much good will my cartoon characters had built up for me.
Hundreds of letters came from all over the world with prayers for my recovery.
It was like being supported and sustained by a great flood tide of affection, of concern, of love. I'm convinced that it helped my shattered body begin to slowly heal itself. I also think it enveloped me in a kind of serenity that made it possible for me to hear a small, quiet, inner voice.
This voice did not speak to me in words; it was more like a sudden awareness of truths that had been around me all the time, truths that I had been too impatient and too self-centered to see.
For example, I had always taken my talent for voice characterizations pretty much for granted. After all,
But now I began to realize that talent is a gift, a gift that can be withdrawn at any time, an unmerited gift that can be repaid only by-a sense of constant, humble gratitude to the Giver.
Another awareness was of a quiet but mighty undercurrent of justice that runs through human affairs. I began to see that the universe really is an echo chamber, where sooner or later the thoughts you have and the deeds you do are reflected back to you.

FOR EXAMPLE, some years before my accident, a friend of mine named Harry Lange had a heart attack while playing the part of Pancho in "The Cisco Kid." I offered to fill in for him for quite a long time26 weeks, I think it wasand so during this period the studio was able to keep on sending his paycheck to his wife.
Now, suddenly, the tables were turned; I was the one who was incapacitated. But like an echo, out of the past came an offer from Shep Menkin, a talented friend of mine: "Let me do your voices while you're laid up; I'll make sure that your family gets the money."
As it turned out, I didn't have to take Shep up on his offer. For a whole year I remained immobilized in a full cast, but thanks to the devotion of my family, and the ingenuity of my wife who turned our home into a combined sanitarium and recording studio, I was able to make the sound tracks that kept 125 people at Warner's working full-time.
But the most valuable single thing that my inner voice taught me was the importance of expressing affection. I don't think that before my accident I was any more remiss than most people in this regard. But lying there in my cast, I recalled how my efforts in the past to tell people that I was grateful for their friendship, or to thank them for caring about me, seemed hopelessly inadequate.
And so I began to make a deliberate, effort to set this right. To Jack Benny I said, "I want you to know how much I admire and appreciate and love you."
I expressed such feelings to other people too. Maybe they were a little startled, or even momentarily embarrassed. But every time, I'd feel a surge of warmth and closeness that strengthened the bond between us.

KIDS HAVE BEEN GOOD to Mel Blanc.
While he was recovering from a near-fatal automobile accident 21 years ago, Blanc found out that he had given birth to more than just the voices of such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Sylvester the Cat. The sad-eyed ex-tuba player from Portland, Ore., had become those characters and countless others to a generation of children who were entertained by the Warner Bros, movie and television cartoon menageries.
Kids would send me something that belonged to them, like a penny or something, in a letter and say, 'Please don't die, Bugs Bunny.' " says Blanc who, at age 74, still works at the craft he all but invented nearly 50 years ago.

That's when 1 really started to appreciate kids."The man behind the rabbit is now a popular speaker on college campuses. It gives him a chance to meet the children who have since grown up but not away from his creations, which have appeared in an estimated 5,000 cartoons.
In a recent appearance in Schenectady, N.Y., at Union College  his 135th before a collegiate audience  the mostly teen-aged crowd gave Blanc a standing ovation that nearly drowned out the inevitable opener, "What's up, doc?"
As he does for children, Blanc has a soft spot in his heart for Bugs Bunny, the cartoon rabbit he gave name and voice in 1938, a year after he went under contract to Warner Bros.
"They were going to call him 'Hoppy Hare,' and he was supposed to say something like 'What's cooking?' " says Blanc, whose choice of a catch-phrase for the smart-aleck rabbit prevailed and became one of the most recognizable in the world.
"When I saw his picture, I tried to pick out the toughest accent in the country for him," says Blanc. "I figured it was either the Bronx or Brooklyn, so I combined them."It was that sort of thought that went into the development of his other characterizations, like Yosemite Sam, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. A trip to a farm convinced the city-bred Blanc that a pig would have to stutter. And because of its long bill, he reasoned, if a duck could talk at all it would probably speak with difficulty  like Daffy.
"But you've still got to be able to understand him," says Blanc, an apparent reference to another, less-understandable cartoon duck from the Disney studio.
All good-natured professional sniping aside, Blanc did work in one Walt Disney film  the 1940 production of Pinocchio.
"I got $50 a day for 16 days of work doing a cat that hiccupped," he says.
"Then the Disney people decided that a hiccupping cat sounded like it was drunk, so they cut out all but one of them and ended up with an $800 hiccup."

Although he claims he got them only in lieu of a raise, his screen credits  "Voice Characterizations by Mel Blanc"  brought him the recognition that led to a parallel career in radio in the 1930s and 1940s. It was a medium custom-made for a man who claims to have more than 400 different voices at his disposal.
At one time, Blanc was doing 18 radio shows a week. Listeners could tune in almost any time and hear him on the Judy Canova Show, Burns and Allen, Fibber McCee and Molly, or Abbott and Costello.
Parodying an ethnic group or nationality  at a time when Americans were less sensitive to such humor  was simple enough for Blanc and other comedians of the day. It was the special characterizations that had him in demand.
"It got to be a game," he says. "The writers were always trying to throw me a curve."
Blanc returned every challenge, giving voice to everything from a goldfish to a drunken bull to an English racehorse.
But the students in Schenectady who knew him for his characterizations of Barney Rubble of the Flintstones, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote seemed unaware of Blanc's contribution to radio.Blanc was a regular on the Jack Benny show where be helped perpetuate the comedic image of Benny as a vain, self-centered skinflint. He was the sound of Benny's ancient Maxwell automobile, the voice of Prof. LeBlanc, the comedian's longsuffering violin teacher, and the roar of Carmichael, the bear who guarded the notorious Benny vault.
He was Benny's wise-cracking parrot, the melancholy Mexican and the Union Depot train conductor calling in vain for riders to "Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga."
Blanc defends cartoons against critics of children's programming, who complain of television violence.
There's no violence in the Warner Bros, cartoons. If you see someone dropped off a cliff, they're back in the next scene. That's not violence. It's slapstick comedy."
Most of Blanc's work these days is in TV commercials, some of them done by the production company he operates in Southern California with the son he's groomed to lake his place eventually.
"I taught him all the voices. He can do every one of them."

From the July 11th 1989 edition of the Capital Times:

From News Services

Famed voice creator
Mel Blanc dies

LOS ANGELES - Mel Blanc, who entertained generations of cartoon viewers as the voice of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Barney Rubble, Tweety and hundreds of other characters, died Monday following a lengthy hospital stay. He was 81.
The creator of such classic cartoon trademarks as Bugs Bunny's "Eh, what's up, Doc?" Porky Pig's "Th-th-th-th-that's all f-f-f-folks" and Road Runner's "Beep, Beep" died at 2:30 p.m. from complications of heart disease and other ailments at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said hospital spokesman Ron Wise.
He had been suffering from cardiac problems and emphysema when admitted May 19.
Blanc performed the voices on 850 cartoons for Warner Bros, in a career spanning more than 50 years. His versatility was so profound that few would have presumed just one actor was behind so many markedly different characters. He also performed voices on countless other cartoons, such as "The Flintstones" for Hanna-Barbera,
and commercials and radio fillers.
In an interview last November, he estimated he had done 900 voices in all.
"Those voices were part of him, and he loved every moment of it," said his son, Noel. "When the kids would come to the door or in the studio, he became those characters."
Blanc made a car commercial on the day he went into the hospital "and the last thing he said on the commerical  the only thing he said  was 'That's all folks,' and that's the last thing that was recorded on tape," his son said.
"The reservoir of Hollywood legends is extremely low, and Mel Blanc's passing is a deep personal loss," said longtime friend Mickey Rooney.
Working decades before the advent of high-tech sound effects, Blanc was a human synthesizer and a verbal computer. It has been estimated that more than 20 million people hear his voices daily.
Blanc had a "magnificently versatile voice," said Robert A. Daly, Warner's chairman and chief executive
officer. "Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety and so many more  they were all Mel Blanc."
Besides Warner Bros., Blanc worked for other animated filmmakers, playing the part of the hyperactive,
yammering Dino, Fred Flintstone's pet dinosaur. Within the industry he was known as "The Man of a Thousand Voices."
Blanc said he once tried to count all the cartoon voices he did, while recuperating in 1961 from a near-fatal car accident. He said he fell asleep shortly after passing the 400 mark.
Blanc's last cartoon contribution came with 1988's popular animation-live action film, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," in which he did the voices of Daffy, Tweety, Bugs and Sylvester. He wrote an autobiography that year, "That's Not All, Folks: My Life in the Golden Age of Cartoons and Radio."
Blanc also played the voice of the robot Twiki on the live-action television series "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century."
Blanc said in an interview last year that Bugs Bunny  originally called Happy Rabbit  was his favorite. "Everybody knows who I am, Doc," he said in the character's voice. "I don't cayuh where dey are or who dey are. Even in Mars dey know about me."
Blanc introduced Bugs Bunny in the 1940 short "A Wild Hare," giving the cartoon rabbit a combination Bronx and Brooklyn accent.
Blanc invented the voices of such well-known cartoon figures as Woody Woodpecker, Speedy Gonzalez, Pepe Le Pew, Tasmanian Devil, Road Runner, Foghorn Leghorn, Heathcliffe the cat, Speed Buggy and Yosemite Sam.
He also did voices for Mr. Spacely on "The Jetsons" and the Frito Bandito. In 1987, Blanc performed in the Daffy Duck short "The Duxorcist," marking the return of Looney Tunes movie shorts after a 20-year absence. He also worked on the 1988 short "The Night of the Living Duck," which kicked off the New York Film Festival.
Blanc called Bugs his favorite character, although he hated the taste of carrots he chewed for sound effects and spit the uneaten remains in the trash can.
But for all his fame as the voices of cartoon characters, the most Warner Bros, ever paid him for his vocal skills was $20,000, and the studio retained the rights to the phrases Blanc invented.

It should come as little surprise that Mary Jane Croft would seem to have appeared in so many Elliott Lewis productions for CBS. As Lewis' wife until his death in 1990, Lewis and Croft had enjoyed over 40 years of productive collaboration in Radio and Television.

Born in Muncie, Indiana, Croft worked extensively as an actress in radio, appearing on such programs as The Adventures of Sam Spade, The Beulah Show, The Bill Goodwin Show, Blondie, Four-Star Playhouse, Honest Harold, Joan Davis Time, The Mel Blanc Show, One Man's Family, Our Miss Brooks, Romance, Sears Radio Theater, and The Story of Sandra Martin.
Indeed, Mary Jane Croft worked with hubby Lewis on both Radio and Television, either acting together, or more commonly with Elliott Lewis producing and/or directing and Croft acting. She worked with Lewis and Lewis' first wife, Cathy Lewis on Twelve Players, and on Arch Oboler's Plays, Hallmark Playhouse, Broadway Is My Beat, The Line-Up, Suspense, Mr. Alladin, Crime Classics, Elliott and Cathy Lewis On Stage, and The CBS Radio Workshop.

On Television, she worked with Lewis (with Lewis as Director) on The Lucy Show, Mothers-In-Law, and Here's Lucy. She also enjoyed a long collaboration with Lucille Ball, a relationship that developed into a lasting friendship in the process.

Prior to her involvement with Lucille Ball, she had been a frequent guest star on other television programs. She was a regular on at least two other series, as friendly neighbor Clara Randolph on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (ABC) and on Our Miss Brooks (CBS), in which she reprised her radio role as Miss Enright, the title character's rival. If you notice an ongoing connection with CBS it's for good reason. Elliott Lewis' career with CBS spanned over 25 years. Croft's career with CBS lasted almost 20 years.

Mary Jane Croft was also the 'voice' of Cleo the basset hound in the NBC series The People’s Choice (1955-58). Mary Jane Croft-Lewis' only son, by a prior marriage, was tragically killed in the Vietnam War during the period that Croft was co-starring with Lucille Ball.

After the death of Elliott Lewis, Mary Jane Croft continued to stay active until her own passing nine years later. Mary Jane Croft's characteristicly droll, and often sarcastic delivery, was as identifiable in Radio as on Television. As both a character actress and comedienne, she is fondly remembered by a growing body of new fans now that much of her work from Television is becoming available.

But it's her work during The Golden Age of Radio that we celebrate here, and her performances are as enjoyable today as they were fifty years ago.